[bug#66426] [PATCH 00/65] Export %default-gnu-imported-modules and %default-gnu-modules.

[Liliana Marie Prikler]

Am Montag, dem 09.10.2023 um 15:36 -0400 schrieb Maxim Cournoyer:
> Hello,
> 
> Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > Am Montag, dem 09.10.2023 um 12:33 -0400 schrieb Maxim Cournoyer:
> > > This series introduces default variable bindings for the default
> > > gnu-build-system IMPORTED-MODULES and MODULES values.  The lack
> > > of a %default-gnu-modules caused enough confusion, as made
> > > apparent by this series.
> > If we're going to do this anyway, let's go big: add modules and
> > imported-modules to the fields of build-system and allow users to
> > use that.
> 
> I don't understand; what would that look like in practice?  Isn't
> this already how it works?  Build systems have #:modules and
> #:imported-modules arguments, which are provided via the 'arguments'
> field of a package.
Well, no.   The build-system record currently contains a name,
description and lowering procedure, but no "immediately helpful" data
for package writers.

> > Perhaps also add short-hands so that (default-modules gnu)
> > expands to (build-system-modules gnu-build-system) and likewise for
> > imported-modules.
> 
> Ah!  I understand the idea now.  It feels a bit strange to me to
> attach such metadata to the build-system record itself though.  At
> any rate, we could discuss this separately and do it in a future
> iteration, perhaps?
> The series posted here already has value in itself, and if we ever go
> to attach this information to build system objects instead of plain
> variables, we could use sed to adjust the code base.
> 
> What do yo think?
Hmm, at the very least I'd like to bikeshed the variable names, hence
my suggestion to encode it into the build system itself, which would
allow any name locally.  %default-anything reads weird to me, plus it's
a mouthful for imported modules.
WDYT about %gnu-build-modules and %gnu-build-system-modules, where
%gnu-build-system-modules keeps its current intent for being imported?
Alternatively we could also rename it to %gnu-build-imported-modules
with a deprecated alias.

Cheers